Queen-of-the-Prairie

Filipendula rubra

Queen-of-the-Prairie earns its name in midsummer when the towering flower plumes open in fluffy clouds of deep rose-pink. Reaching 4–7 feet, the blooms stand high above the rest of the garden, swaying in a breeze and catching light in a way that makes the whole plant glow on a July afternoon. The fragrance is light and sweet. the kind that reaches you before you see the plant. It's a prairie and wet meadow plant that spreads by rhizomes to form bold colonies over time. The deeply cut, pinnate leaves have tropical texture and turn yellow in fall. Give it a moist spot at the back of a border, a rain garden edge, or a low meadow area and it will naturalize and expand year after year with essentially no maintenance.